


Not So Temporary

by sultrysweet



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Accidents Happen, F/F, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Sleeping Together, basically a fic about the many years it takes for emma and regina to finally get together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2018-08-09 11:10:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7799428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sultrysweet/pseuds/sultrysweet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma and Regina have a habit of accidentally sleeping together. // SQW Day 5: Sleeping</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My late contribution to Swan Queen Week. I tried my hardest to keep this a oneshot, but the ending has been difficult to write. I've spent the last four days waiting to finish this fic as a oneshot and it hasn't worked out too well for me. So I'd like to share some of what I can for this fic as soon as possible at this point, which means it's now become a three chapter story. Hopefully I can fix the ending in the next few days and you can have more than the first part of this three-parter. For now, enjoy the first installment of the day 5 prompt: sleeping.

The first night they slept together, exhaustion didn’t even begin to describe how Regina felt. A look at the clock informed her it was finally time for bed, but baths still needed to be had and Emma hadn’t yet wrangled the children. She heard the laughter, the high-pitched giggles, along with the thumping footsteps of a graceless woman who’d all but _officially_ moved into the house. It was obvious in the way Emma’s boots weren’t the only pair of shoes the blonde left by the front door. Obvious in the way that Emma’s red leather jacket hung on the coat rack while her black leather jacket, which the blonde seemed to favor more than the red in recent months, hung in the guest room closet.

“Neal, get back here, you booger,” she heard Emma call out to the little boy that, only seconds later, flew down the staircase and crashed into her legs.

“Gina, save me,” he exclaimed before he grabbed onto her pants and hid behind her legs.

Regina smiled and ran a hand through his wispy brown hair. He poked his head out from behind her legs, which made it easier to touch his hair, and stared up at the top of the staircase with wide eyes. Thankfully, Regina no longer hated and wanted to kill Snow White because those big brown eyes of Neal’s were too cute to ignore. He looked more like Charming than he did his mother, but Neal was still a product of her former stepdaughter and arch nemesis and if she had still hated Snow, the woman’s son could _not_ make her feel all warm and fuzzy. Although, that ship had sailed as soon as she became friends with Emma.

Emma appeared in the spot Neal focused on at the top of the stairs. The other woman met Regina’s gaze first before green eyes found Neal tucked behind her.

“Oh, Kid. Big mistake,” Emma said with laughter in her voice and started her descent to the first floor. “There’s no way she’s going to protect you from me.”

“Is that so?” She relied on her Evil Queen voice and arched an eyebrow at Emma. She dropped her hand from Neal’s hair to his shoulder. “What makes you think _I’m_ not the Savior of this story?”

“Uh,” Emma pretended to think about it before she smirked, “bath time. You can’t sleep if the kids aren’t clean. Babysitter’s responsibility. At least when the babysitter is family.”

Regina’s eyes sinfully glimmered before she grinned at Emma. “You’re right,” she said before she whirled around and crouched down, her hands poised to tickle. “No one’s safe from bath time.”

“No!” Neal yelled right her face and tried to bolt into another room, but Regina grabbed him under his arms before he could get past her.

“I’ve got you now,” she unnecessarily announced and lifted him onto her hip. He wriggled around and continued to deny what was clearly happening, bath time being worse than a timeout for a five-year-old boy with far too much energy. She remembered nights like that one all too well when Henry was his age. It wasn’t a new experience to her, but Regina hadn’t expected to relive it and especially not with a Charming. Well, _another_ Charming since Henry turned out to be from that unfortunate bloodline.

Regina whisked Neal off to the stairs where Emma met them at the landing.

“Gina, you be-rayed me,” Neal said.

“Betrayed,” Regina corrected with an amused smile. “And I’m sorry, but you’ve got to take a bath, young man.”

“Noooo,” Neal whined and finished it up with a dramatic pout.

“Yeeesss,” Regina elongated the word to mimic Neal.

A puff of green smoke appeared just to Regina’s left and, when it dissipated, her redheaded niece stood beside her with a devious smile and some serious attitude in her body language. “Bet you can’t catch me,” the smartass teased with such confidence.

“You’re just like your mother,” Regina grumbled, but the girl heard her and grinned like it was the greatest compliment to receive. She handed Neal over to Emma as his fidgeted, wiggled, fought _hard_ not to accept his fate. “I’ll be up in a minute. Hopefully he won’t give you much trouble.”

Emma chuckled. “Yeah, I’ll take baby brother over that troublemaker any day. Good luck.”

Regina rolled her eyes, but didn’t otherwise respond. Emma started up the stairs with an uncooperative Neal just as she turned to the tricky, cocky, little girl. “Alright, Robyn. Do your worst.”

Robyn flashed her teeth when she smirked that time, tilted her head to the side with a consistent level of cockiness, and gleefully replied, “Okay.”

Another poof and Robyn was gone. The only indication of where she’d reappeared came in the form of her villain-in-the-making giggle, although Zelena and Regina’s influences would keep her from killing or maiming people, casting any curses if it was the last thing they did. So, only a villain in the sense that she definitely, constantly, was up to no good with all the drawing on the walls and magical stunts like the hide and seek situation she had going on with Regina at that moment.

More giggles erupted from a different room than Regina had heard the last giggles. With a sigh and spectacular determination after such a long day, she vanished in a cloud of her signature purple smoke and poofed into the other room just in time to see Robyn disappear in her own cloud of green.

The long day was over, but her long night had just begun.

* * *

Regina collapsed onto her bed three hours later with a sigh as heavy as her bleary eyes. She only had the strength to remove her clothes for the day and slip into an old, loose T-shirt she’d once worn when painting one of the bedrooms. There were a few different paint colors splattered across the shirt that hadn’t washed out and a hole near the hem at one of her hips. It was the least put together she’d looked since Henry was teething, but she didn’t have it in her to care. She just wanted to pass out and sleep like the dead until it was bright out and she couldn’t avoid the new day any longer.

With two wild children in the house, sleep was a thing of the past. It was impossible. It wasn’t something either Neal or Robyn appreciated and Regina couldn’t wait to see the day they were old enough to understand the hell they’d suffer if they didn’t at least take a nap at some point. But that was years away and at four and five years old, Robyn and Neal were awake after twenty minutes of rest. At least Robyn wasn’t the weight on top of her only seconds after she’d closed her eyes. If it had been Robyn, there probably would have been another magical runaround and Regina wasn’t sure she was up to it.

“Gina,” Neal loudly whispered, his breath hot against her cheek.

She scrunched up her face and groaned before she opened her eyes to look at him. His nose was nearly pressed against her own, his little knees wedged up against her side where he knelt beside her on the bed. “Neal.”

“I’m hungry.”

“You are not,” she tiredly argued.

“Uh huh.”

“No. It’s late. Go back to bed.”

“But I can’t sleep. I’m hungry.”

Regina sighed through her nose. “No snacks. It’s after bedtime.”

“But, Gina, I want—”

“No snacks,” she firmly said.

He pouted. He looked a little upset to hear the word no, maybe even especially from Regina because she hardly ever said no to him.

“Nice try, but that face won’t work on me.”

The door opened with a small squeak and tore both her and Neal’s attention away to focus on their company. Emma walked in with her eyes partially closed and Robyn on her hip. “I believe this one belongs to you,” the blonde groggily said as she trudged toward the bed.

Robyn, like Neal, looked very much awake. It wasn’t just in the way Robyn didn’t at all lean on Emma and lay her head on the blonde’s shoulder, but her choice in outfit. Regina had watched her change into her pajamas after much insistence, so she knew Robyn had changed out of her pajamas sometime after Regina had tucked her in. Because Regina had not insisted Robyn go to bed in her Halloween costume. Even if she had allowed it, there was no way she would have let Robyn sleep with the pointed witch hat or the bejeweled diamond-shaped wand. When they first bought it, Robyn had complained that the wand was a stupid addition to the costume because, as a natural born witch, she knew she didn’t need a wand to access her magic. And yet, there she was with the wand in her hand as Emma carried her into the room.

“You fed my sister the labor inducing onion rings that brought Robyn into our lives prematurely, so I think that makes her mostly _your_ responsibility.”

“She’s _your_ niece, _your_ blood. That’s _your_ responsibility.”

“Fine, then by the same standards that makes this one _your_ responsibility,” Regina countered as she ran a hand down Neal’s back to indicate who she was talking about, though they both knew the subject of her statement.

“I really don’t feel like trading off,” Emma groaned.

“Neither do I. Your brother is apparently starving.”

“Seriously? Come on, Neal. You ate truckloads of food at dinner. You ate all the leftovers before they could even become leftovers.”

Neal smiled even though Regina was sure he didn’t understand anything Emma had said. It was a big, cheeky smile that she was also sure he’d picked up from hanging around Robyn too much. The girl was seven months younger than him and yet he mirrored her a lot more than she did him. Of course, Robyn had the personality that just made people, especially other children her age, gravitate toward her. That was something that made Zelena proud as a mother, which Zelena had mentioned to her on multiple occasions. Regina had to admit, the girl commanded a room with her mere presence alone. At four years old, that was definitely something to admire and made even an aunt proud.

"What does she want," Regina asked and nodded her head at Robyn just as Emma dumped the girl on the bed and then fell face first onto the mattress in the only available, childless, legless space the other woman had to land.

"I want to play," Robyn answered for herself. She waved the wand for effect and bopped Neal on the head with it.

Neal rubbed his head and frowned before he climbed over Regina and reached for the wand.

Regina winced as the boy accidentally pinched her side and kicked at her hip on his way toward the middle of the bed where Robyn sat and turned away from him to keep the wand in her possession. Regina looked at Emma while the two children fought and was instantly met with eyes as tired as her own.

Emma propped her head up on her hand, pushed her elbow in the mattress to hold herself up, and looked at her during the struggle for the wand. Thankfully, Robyn and Neal fought quietly and didn't move too far away as they remained on the bed. It made it easier for her and Emma when they would undoubtedly attempt to drag the two of them back to their own beds.

But that didn't happen.

Emma pulled herself further onto the bed and slid up Regina's side before she flopped onto her back and rested her head on the unused pillow, which she pulled closer from the other side of the bed. Emma hummed and closed her eyes before she shimmied against the bed, a move that suggested the blonde was settling in.

"Oh, no," Regina started to scold. "You are not going to fall asleep here."

"Why not? The kid's will probably tire themselves out in a little bit and neither one of us is really capable to carry them anywhere. So if they get to stay, why can't I?"

"Because they're children and even if they're old enough to know better, they don't have the same self-control or discipline that adults do."

"Well, that's just the thing, isn't it." It wasn't a question. Emma had even said with it with a lopsided smile. "I'm not adult. You said so yourself."

"Because you wanted to have Lucky Charms for dinner and tried to pick out the actual cereal in favor of a bowl of marshmallow charms drowned in milk," she clarified with a raspy voice, roughened up by her level of exhaustion.

"The charms are the best part of Lucky Charms," Emma said in defense. "Everyone knows that."

"Mm." The noncommittal hum was what did her in. In a matter of minutes, Regina was unconscious and so were the rest of her sleepover companions.

* * *

Light crunching sounds slowly brought Regina back to consciousness. She furrowed her brow, her eyes still closed, as she stretched mid-roll onto her side. She opened her eyes a few seconds later and was met with a sight she couldn’t have imagined in any realm or lifetime. Emma Swan, Henry’s birthmother and the woman that broke her curse, lay in her facing her in her bed.

Everything was perfectly decent. There was a child-sized space between them, a specific child _actually_ between them at that very moment, but Emma Swan was in her bed. And had Cheerios in her disheveled blonde hair. Cheerios, she noticed, that came from the child seated between them with a sandwich bag of them in hand.

Robyn.

“Where did you get those,” Regina asked with a voice deepened and raspy from sleep.

“Mommy,” Robyn answered with a smile.

“Of course you did,” Regina grumbled before she rubbed her eyes. “You put them in Emma’s hair?”

Robyn’s smile turned into a wicked grin.

“Why?”

Robyn flashed her teeth as her grin split wide open. “It’s fun. Mommy said it’s okay.”

Regina sighed and muttered, “Of course she did. Why don’t you go eat those with Mommy?”

“Mommy told me to wake you up. She made breakfast.”

For the first time that morning, she smelled the fresh brewed coffee and bacon as if Robyn’s words had sparked that particular sense of hers. “Well, I’m awake. Go downstairs and be with Mommy.”

“Emma’s not awake.”

“I’ll wake her. It’s fine.”

“Okay.” Robyn closed her fist around the top of the sandwich bag, but didn’t reseal it as she squirmed and rolled herself out of bed. Regina was sure the girl also purposely left Cheerios in Emma’s hair. Regina hadn’t asked her to pick them out, but even at four years old Robyn knew better.

So, Regina took it upon herself to remove the Cheerios in Robyn’s absence. After the first two were picked out of wavy blonde hair that had fallen over Emma’s face, she smiled and let out a quiet and breathy laugh. Her breath brushed aside some of Emma’s hair and the other woman’s face scrunched up in response.

Regina’s smile, though it should have, didn’t fade as Emma stirred. Even when Emma opened her eyes, a little confused about her surroundings, she continued to smile.

“I fell asleep,” were the first words out of Emma’s mouth and they surprisingly sounded apologetic.

“You did.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I fell asleep, too.”

“Do you hate me now?”

“No,” Regina said with a hint of laughter and pulled another Cheerio out of the younger woman’s hair.

Emma frowned. “There’s something in my hair?”

“Cheerios.”

“Cheerios? How is there cereal in my hair? I didn’t even eat cereal.”

“That would be Zelena’s handiwork.”

“Your sister snuck in while we slept and put Cheerios in my hair?” Emma sounded incredulous, but it was entirely possible Zelena would have done just that if Robyn had been somewhere else or hadn’t been willing or hadn’t existed.

“She sent her little minion to do the job,” Regina informed her.

Emma looked around the room and furrowed her brow when whatever it was she was looking for wasn’t there. “I don’t see the minion.”

“Downstairs. Zelena’s apparently made breakfast and I told Robyn to join her. I’m sure Robyn will be back if we don’t get up soon, though.”

Emma grunted. “Five more minutes.”

Regina rolled her eyes, but smiled again as she did. “You’re already awake.”

“You say that like I can’t just fall right back to sleep.”

Regina snorted. “Sure, _Sleeping Beauty_. Come on. Get up. I’m not mad at you for falling asleep here last night, but if you fall asleep here again after being fully rested I _will_ kick you out of bed. Physically kick you.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Emma mumbled, but her words were clear and her voice wasn’t at all hushed.

Regina’s smile widened.

Emma propped herself up on her elbow and ran a hand through her hair. A few more Cheerios tumbled out of it and onto the bed in front and behind the blonde. When she settled again into her new position, Emma noticed Regina’s smile. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Regina cleared her throat and masked the smile instantly as she looked off to a random spot in the room. “I’m not looking at you.”

Emma jiggled just the slightest bit with barely contained, audible laughter. It pulled Regina’s attention back to the other woman who beamed at her as soon as she met green eyes. “You were definitely looking at me.”

“In your dreams,” Regina insisted with narrowed eyes.

Emma bit her bottom lip and slid closer. She rolled partially onto her stomach, which nearly put the blonde on top of her.

Regina held her breath and couldn’t focus on one place on Emma’s face to look. Her eyes first landed on Emma’s eyes and then fell to the woman’s lips. It took her a few seconds before she was able to look in Emma’s eyes again and when she did, it was obvious she’d been caught staring.

“You were looking at me. Again. I think you like me.”

“Not at all.”

“I’m your favorite person in the world, only second to Henry.”

“Keep lying to yourself.”

“You’re the one lying to yourself. Because you like me. You were looking at me. And you slept with me.”

“I fell asleep in _my_ bed. You fell asleep _next to me_. We did not sleep together.”

Emma flashed her a smug smirk. “Either way, you didn’t mind it.” Emma crawled over her to get out of bed and left her with the words, “I love your PJs, by the way.”

Breakfast was going to be interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the rating of this fic to M because of the third chapter, which I'm currently working on. For now, let me know what you think of part 2 in Emma and Regina's life years after the events of season 5.

The second night they slept together, Henry was officially a college bound, high school graduate and an almost empty bottle of red wine sat on the small end table between their lounge chairs on the back patio. Two glasses of wine rested on the table beside the bottle and both were in need of a refill.

“I can’t believe he’s eighteen,” Emma said as she stared up at the starry sky.

“I can’t believe he’s leaving,” Regina corrected.

“He’ll be fine. And it’s not like he’s going to California. He’ll be in New York. It’s not too far a drive. We can visit him a lot. Bug him and socially stunt him. He won’t have a friend or a girlfriend for years because we’ll be around too much and cramp his style.”

Regina unhappily laughed. “Thanks for trying to cheer me up about this, but it’s not working. You’re a great lie detector but an abominable liar.”

“It’s not a lie. We will visit him every chance we can. And I’m sure he’ll want to come home. Maybe even once a month. For the weekend. The _whole_ weekend.”

Regina smiled at Emma before a shiver ran through her.

“You’re cold,” Emma pointed out the obvious.

“I’ll manage.”

“No, you’ll be warm. Hang on.” Emma got up from her chair and disappeared inside the house.

While Emma was inside, Regina poured most of what remained in the wine bottle into her glass. She poured the very last of the wine into Emma’s glass and set the empty bottle back down on the table before she sipped at her half-full glass. A minute or two later, Emma returned with a couple of blankets and a sweatshirt.

"Here." Emma handed her the sweatshirt and dropped one of the blankets on the empty lounge chair before the younger woman spread the other one over her. "Blanket, sweatshirt, alcohol. The three best things to warm you up on a cold, Fall night."

Regina looked down at the balled up sweatshirt in her lap and picked at it with unsure hands.

"Are you going to wear it or treat it like I just grabbed it from the bottom of my dirty hamper," Emma asked.

Regina held it out, away from her, by the shoulder areas and saw the blue lettering of the name of Henry's college printed on the gray material. Emma had picked it up when the three of them went for a college visit after Henry had received all of his acceptance letters. The sweatshirt had only been washed a couple times and it was soft to the touch.

Regina slipped it on and settled into its warm and fuzzy inside. She then pulled the blanket up to her waist and watched Emma get comfortable under the other blanket in her own chair.

"Now's the time we get to cry into our alcohol about how our little boy isn't so little," Emma said. "And we can talk about all his embarrassing childhood memories. Although, I might need a refresher course on a lot of them. My only knowledge of him before he brought me to Storybrooke comes from the altered memories you fed me when he and I left town to escape a curse."

"I'm not sure that'll help make this any easier to accept," Regina confessed. "It'll help with crying into my wine, but that doesn't sound very appealing."

"Too bad," Emma replied. "Prepare yourself for a salty drink because I remember Henry's first steps and I want to talk about it. I want to talk about his wispy hair, big eyes, about him just sitting there playing with his toys until he saw you getting ready for work."

"You do _not_ remember me getting ready for work. I wasn't in any of your memories."

"Right. In the memory you gave Henry and me, I was the one going to work, but now that I know better I know it was you standing there. Anyway, you were getting ready and he was making these cute little noises that made you smile, but then they stopped." Emma looked at her with a raised brow and expression that prompted Regina to continue from where she left off.

Regina sighed and took a sip of her wine. "I turned to him when he went quiet, just to check on him, and he was on his feet. His little hands were on the table to keep him steady and his eyes wide and focused on me. He'd stood up before, several times, so I wasn't surprised. I did smile, though. And I started to walk toward him asking what was so urgent he'd stopped playing and stood up."

"But you didn't make it very far," Emma interjected.

"No, I didn't," she fondly said with a broad smile. "I made it from the mirror to the entryway of the room Henry stood in before he slowly and a little awkwardly started to walk toward me.

"He took his hands off the table and walked. He made it a few steps before he looked a little unbalanced, so I swooped in and scooped him up before he could fall on his face or his little butt. I was so proud and I suddenly didn't want to leave. I was thirty minutes late to work that day."

"And you called off the sitter and brought him with you to the office," Emma added with a smile. "You encouraged him to walk again, but he didn't."

"Not until I was in a meeting and the secretary made the mistake of not calling me."

"I don't remember that part, but I'm sure you fired her for that."

"I did. And Henry sat back down. He'd been standing before I started yelling. Just standing not walking. But I took that tone with the secretary and I guess he thought he'd done something wrong."

"Aw, poor kid."

"Yes,” she agreed as she looked down at her wine glass for a moment. “I tried to tell him it was okay and spent the next two days trying to get him to walk. The same night I fired my secretary, I cried myself to sleep."

"What? No. You really did that?" There was obvious concern in Emma's voice.

Regina nodded and took another sip of her wine before she said, "I did. Henry hadn't stood up all day after my outburst. It was my fault he didn't feel comfortable to do it again and it was the first time since I'd adopted him that I felt like my mother."

"Oh, you are nothing like her. I know you two said your final goodbyes on good terms, but your childhood was awful. Some details of my cursed memories might have changed, but I know Henry's childhood was nothing like yours. It was good. Until he realized he was adopted and my mom gave him the book, anyway. But the point is, you weren't like your mother then and you aren't like her now."

She looked over at Emma and saw certainty and warmth in beautiful green eyes. It stunted Regina's breathing, her chest a little tight. Her cheeks flooded with heat and a rosy tint most likely informed Emma of her reaction.

"Thank you," Regina quietly said with a hint of a smile. She couldn't give more than that because everything suddenly had so much weight. It was a good weight, nothing uncomfortable, but it was all so real in that moment. "His first steps, his first day of school. It all feels like it was just yesterday."

"Think of it this way, he still has his first day of college, his first serious relationship, his first serious breakup, his first wife."

"Emma," she scolded with wide eyes.

"What?" Emma laughed as she spoke.

"Don't you dare joke about that. He's only getting married once and it'll last until death do they part."

"Who knew you're so into happily ever after the first time around? Wow. Regina Mills, a one and done kind of woman."

"I always believed in meeting the one and living a good life together, committed to each other out of love and respect for each other. I believed in a marriage like your parents’. The only thing changed any of that was...well, the most unpleasant part of my life." She didn't want a reminder, didn't want to talk about the darkest part of her past that definitely helped her stay on the path to becoming the Evil Queen, so she looked at Emma to keep herself from drowning.

Emma met her gaze with sympathy and understanding. "I'm sorry," Emma said with audible honesty in her tone and sincerity in her eyes.

"It's not your fault," she replied. "You weren't even born yet."

"Yeah, but it's still wrong. It shouldn't have happened."

"We lived in a different world then. That's just how things were." Regina tried to shrug it off despite how sick it made her to even think about it, think about _him_.

"I don't care. I don’t blame you for thinking differently about marriage after that horrific experience. If you never wanted to marry again, I'd completely understand."

"Careful, Emma. That almost sounds like a proposal," she joked, and immediately felt better about the topic of conversation.

Emma raised her hands in a gesture of surrender and replied, "Definitely not my intention. I mean, first I'd have to know if you wanted to get married again before I thought about proposing. It'd be common courtesy given your history. Not asking about that before proposing would just be rude and inconsiderate."

Regina smiled, a full and genuine smile, as her eyes prickled with tears. Emma's expression changed as her eyes watered and, soon after, the blonde amended her statement.

"But I'm not proposing and I'm done talking about proposing, and I'm sorry I brought it up."

Regina shook her head. "It's fine. I'm not...I'm not about to cry because of the almost-proposal thing."

"Then...why _are_ you about to cry?"

"Because I don't think anyone else would think to ask," she admitted. "Even...Robin."

"Well, I don't think a lot of people know you like I do," Emma replied with a small smile as she seemingly tried to pull Regina away from her thoughts.

Regina chuckled, but was still on the verge of tears. "No. They don't."

A moment passed between them as they sat in silence and looked up at the stars, but Regina spoke again on the subject a short time later.

"I might not like the idea of marriage for myself, but Henry... I hope he feels strongly enough about someone to want to commit to them for the rest of his life. And that someone should feel the same way about him or the wedding is off. I promise you that."

Emma nodded and a moment later said, "That’s part of what makes you a great mom, you know that?"

Regina's lips twitched at the corners with a barely there smile. A second later, even in her borrowed sweatshirt, she shivered. She pulled on the sweatshirt and tugged the blanket further up her body.

"Are you still cold," Emma asked.

"No," Regina answered and she shook her head, despite the chill that passed through her almost as soon as the word came out of her mouth.

"That was definitely a shiver," Emma said a second before she got up and closed the gap between them. The blonde ripped the blanket away from her, but quickly slid beneath it at Regina's side.

Emma spread her own blanket out over Regina's blanket. The younger woman smoothed it out a little and then reclined. It wasn't until after she wriggled around and wedged herself firmly between the arm of the chair and Regina that Emma asked, "Is this okay?"

Regina almost replied with a sarcastic quip on instinct, but the worried look on Emma's face like the blonde had just figured out she could have done something upsetting or something that could have made Regina uncomfortable changed the brunette's approach. "It's okay," she answered. "I'll even move over to give you a little more room. I'm sure your back will be screaming in no time if you press it up against that armrest any longer."

"I'd live." Emma's eyes were on her again and held her captive in her intense gaze.

"I appreciate the sacrifice, but you've sacrificed enough. For me, for your family, for the entire town."

"Hey, after being the Dark One, a bruised backside is nothing," Emma responded a little jokingly with such ease that replaced the hurt and draw back into darkness that would have been her response a few years ago.

Regina smiled and looked up at the stars as she played with the top of the blanket. "And that's what makes you an incredible woman," she replied.

"You think I'm incredible," Emma quietly asked.

She slowly turned back to Emma and looked from the other woman's eyes to her lips. Just as slowly as she refocused her attention on the blonde, her eyes flitted back to Emma's. "You're still an idiot."

Emma rolled her eyes and looked away.

Regina grinned at the other woman's reaction and added, "But you're also incredible." When Emma looked at her again and beamed, Regina took great pleasure in voicing another reply that would annoy the younger woman. "An incredible idiot."

Emma gasped and swatted Regina's arm, the one that the blonde wasn't practically on top of, and then adjusted her position against Regina's side. When Emma seemed settled, the blonde lowered her hand and pinched just above Regina's hip.

"Ow," Regina yelped and started to squirm. “Hitting my arm wasn’t enough?”

Emma only answered with a laugh, but Regina was quick to end that laughter as she pinched the top of Emma's belly button. "Damn," Emma hissed and lurched upward as she threw a leg over Regina's hips. By complete accident, as far as Regina could tell, Emma straddled the brunette's lap and practically thrust her breasts in Regina's face. "Let's see how you like it," came seconds before Emma pinched the top of Regina's belly button in retaliation.

Regina doubted it had the desired effect because instead of pain or the urge to repay the not-so-favorable action, she rolled her hips into Emma and gripped tightly to the armrests on either side of them. She didn't make a sound, but she did feel the sting. It wasn't all that painful for Regina, though. It was a bearable discomfort and her instinctive roll of her hips lessened that sting when she felt Emma. And she assumed that, all of it, was evident in her eyes by the way Emma looked at her.

"Did that- Did I just- Is that a turn on for you," Emma asked where she continued to hover over her.

"Not...entirely," Regina cautiously confessed.

"Oh my god. So, if you got a navel piercing, would you have to hide a moan or would you just instantly orgasm," Emma asked with a bright, overly amused smile.

"I'd never get a navel piercing."

"Why would you deny yourself that pleasure," Emma teasingly asked.

"Shut up," she said before she pinched the swell of Emma's left breast where it was hidden beneath the white sweater the blonde wore.

"Ah!" Emma laughed a little as she shouted and also moved toward Regina's touch instead of away from it.

"It seems I've found something that turns _you_ on," Regina said with a deliciously evil smirk.

"Two somethings," Emma admitted after a few seconds, green eyes locked on brown the entire time. "When you look at me like that... All you need is a corset or one of those Evil Queen outfits, and even _without_ them, it gives me shivers. And not the kind that happens because of the weather."

Regina arched an eyebrow, which worked more in her favor than Emma's.

"Stop it," Emma warned her, but smiled as she did.

"Mm, this is far too much fun to stop."

"Oh my god. _Regina_ , I swear."

"You swear what? Fealty? Do you want to get on your knees when you say that?"

"Regina!"

She laughed.

"I'm not kidding," Emma said. "This is about to be a splash zone if you don't stop."

Regina's lips parted as she quietly gasped. She held Emma's gaze for a moment before she looked down at the button on Emma's jeans and licked her lips. "That sounds intriguing. It also sounds like you have somewhat explosive orgasms." The second statement was punctuated with eye contact that caused Emma's pupils to dilate.

"You want to find out?"

That took Regina by surprise and Emma appeared to love that judging by the blonde's massive grin.

"All bark and no bite," Emma proudly teased.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Regina purred in response.

The quip was enough to wipe the smugness from Emma's expression, but not enough to keep the blonde from raising a questioning eyebrow.

"I'm not saying anything more unless you tell me something first," Regina offered.

"What do you want me to tell you?"

Regina smirked and held Emma's gaze for a long moment—long enough to make Emma squirm above her—before she faked a British accent and asked, "Do I make you horny, baby?"

Emma huffed and rolled her eyes as she slid down Regina's body and wiggled her way back against the brunette's side. "Clearly, begging you to watch all three Austin Powers movies was a mistake."

Regina laughed, a bit like her mayoral self and a little like the Evil Queen who reveled in Snow's misery when the fallen princess made out with one of the Queen's mirrors because it had projected the bandit's charming shepherd. “Then you’ll just have to come up with better movie choices that won’t come back to bite you in the ass.”

Emma narrowed her eyes. “This is your sneaky way of getting me to let you pick the next movie on movie night, isn’t it?”

“If it’s sneaky, why would you expect me to tell?”

“I have my ways of getting people to talk.”

“Even if that were true, it’s Henry’s turn.”

“He’s not going to be here much longer,” Emma unnecessarily reminded her. “The next movie night could be after we drop him off at his dorm.”

“No. We’re going to have a family movie night before we take him,” Regina insisted.

“You’re really going to miss him, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am. He’s my little prince.”

“He’s your grown up prince,” Emma corrected.

Regina glared.

“Okay,” Emma said. “I get it. Not helping.”

“Aren’t you going to miss him? You’ve only know him for the last eight years? You think that’s plenty of time to bond with him and be done with it? I suppose you already gave him up once—”

“Hey,” Emma snapped with eyes as hard as steel. “You don’t get to say that.”

Regina swallowed a thick lump in her throat and nodded as she averted her eyes. “I know. You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that, I just—”

“I get that you’re hurting, but I didn’t deserve that. Eight years ago, I stayed. You thought I needed roots, so I got roots. Right here. With Henry and my parents…and you.”

“I know,” Regina repeated. “I’m glad you stayed, and so is Henry. I can’t…I can’t imagine what things would have been like if you hadn’t broken the curse, if Henry hadn’t been able to find you, if the book hadn’t shown up in Snow’s closet when Henry was angry and struggling to come to grips with the fact that he was adopted.”

“I can.”

Regina’s eyes snapped to the blonde with surprise and her lips parted only seconds after she met Emma’s gaze.

“It would have been boring,” Emma finished. “So boring. And you would have had a moody pre-teen on your hands and maybe he would’ve accepted that he was adopted, because I’m sure you would have found a way to talk to him about it, but everything here before I showed up was dull.”

“It was not.”

Emma flashed her a smug smirk, her defensiveness and sour mood forgotten, and said, “The only source of entertainment you had was Granny calling Ruby a slut because of how free spirited she was and the fact that she wanted to get out of this quaint little seaside town.”

Regina rolled her eyes like Emma didn’t know what she was talking about, even though both women knew the blonde had a point.

“Admit it,” Emma said. “Things got so much more interesting after I agreed to stay.”

Regina huffed and shifted a little in the chair before she replied, “Everything _changed_ when you got here. And then it became more of the same after you broke the curse. Everyone wanted to either kill me or lock me up.”

“But I saved you from that, too. Well, Henry did at first. Just Henry. And then I helped after that.”

“Only because he’d be upset with you if you didn’t,” Regina grumbled.

“Yeah, but you did the same with me. When my mom and I were trying to get through the well after a twisted fight with Cora—”

“And your stupid pirate,” Regina unhelpfully added.

“He’s not _my_ anything anymore,” Emma quietly said, but it had been nearly as much time since Robin’s death as it had been since Emma and Hook’s breakup, so the blonde didn’t seem too affected by the reminder of who Hook used to be and sometimes still was. “Anyway, you only saved us because Henry told you to, but you and I have come a long way since then.”

“Because it’s been about seven years since that happened.”

“Exactly. I didn’t think time could heal all wounds, but I guess maybe it healed this one.”

“No, Henry did.” Regina stared up at the sky for a moment before her lips curled into a smile. “Henry fixed a lot of things and he’s never stopped trying to fix things.”

Emma chuckled. “He always wants to be the hero of the story, the white knight that saves the day.”

“Except now he’s leaving. There are no fairytale roles for him to fill where he’s going.”

“No, but he can still be a good guy. He can still rescue girls from their jerk boyfriends and walk the drunk girls home to make sure they get there safely. He can be a gentleman anywhere he goes, and he still plans to come home any chance he gets. So he can go back to being the Author and a valiant knight in more literal ways then.”

“I suppose.”

Another moment of silence passed between them again as they only heard the sound of crickets chirping and branches swaying in the steady breeze.

“It’s not going to be the same with him gone,” Emma said. “But you’ve still got me. And a full house. With Zelena and Robyn there, and with Neal over for playdates whenever my parents need a babysitter.”

“And they get two babysitters because they only come to _my_ house to ask _you_ to watch him.”

“You can do your own thing while I watch him, you know. You don’t have to get involved. No one’s made you do it and no one will force you to do it in the future, so I don’t know why you’re complaining,” Emma said with a light and playful tone.

“What sane person would ignore the children running rampant in her home just because she’d rather relax on the couch watching TV with a glass of wine?”

“Right,” Emma said with obvious disbelief. “I know you like a nice night in, but you light up every time my parents drop Neal off and you’re always quick to play with Robyn. Do you forget that I always know when you’re lying?”

“How can I when you remind me of it almost every time we talk,” she dryly asked.

“Maybe if you’d stop lying to me every time we talked, I wouldn’t have to remind you.”

“If I didn’t love our son so much, I’d strangle you,” Regina threatened with a glare.

“You could always kill me while he’s away at college and claim it was an unfortunate accident,” Emma suggested. “He’d never know.”

“Yes, he would. He knows you and he knows me. He’s probably betting on how soon I’ll snap because of some ridiculous thing you did.”

“Probably,” Emma agreed with a smile. “I’m pretty sure the entire town has a pool going and he’s got at least twenty dollars invested in sooner rather than later.”

“If I ever found out the town had a pool on when or what I might do next, I’d string them up by their clothes and let them hang together, naked, in the center of town.”

Emma laughed. “I’m not sure you’ve thought that through. There are so many people in the town I would pay _not_ to see naked.”

Regina thought about it and nodded a moment later as she said, “That’s true.”

Emma reached behind herself and grabbed her drink. “More wine?”

“I already have my glass.” Regina raised it to prove her point. There was still enough wine to sip for several minutes.

“Doesn’t mean you aren’t in need of more.”

“Emma Swan, are you trying to get me drunk?”

“Only if it’s working,” the blonde said with a chuckle. A few seconds later, she poured a little of her wine into Regina’s glass.

“It’s not, and I’m still sad about Henry,” Regina answered.

“I figured. But look at it this way,” Emma said before she took a sip of what remained in her glass. “He’s made it this far and he doesn’t seem interested in stopping.”

“That’s the problem. I don’t want him to keep going. I don’t…I don’t want to be standing in the middle of the road watching him drive off without hesitation as he puts distance between us. And all I become to him is the sad face in his rearview mirror that will never stop loving him or caring for him or wanting him to just come home.”

And then the tears came. She scrunched up her face and tried to hold them back, tried to remain on the verge of crying without actually crying, but it was no use. Tears spilled out of her eyes the more she scrunched up her face and salty, wet tracks stained her cheeks.

Regina felt and watched Emma nudge her legs over Emma’s own until they were stretched out over Emma’s. The younger woman’s body curled toward her and Emma joined their hands a few seconds later. When Emma slowly started to rub circles over the back of hands with her thumbs, Regina sniffled and looked up at her. Their eyes met instantly.

“It’s not gonna be like that,” Emma said with unwavering conviction and a gaze to match. “Nothing is threatening the town. Nothing is threatening our son and he’ll remember you. He’ll come back for you with all his memories still intact, plus a few new ones he’ll hopefully share with us.”

“You can’t promise that,” she replied, her voice shaky.

“Yes, I can.”

“Zelena managed to reach you outside of Storybrooke all those years ago. And she did it from the Enchanted Forest. Anyone can send a flying monkey in disguise and hurt him.”

“They won’t.”

“You _can’t_ know that,” Regina repeated her argument.

 “He knows what to look out for. We got him this far. Death threats, common colds and worrying fevers, kidnappings and almost losing him to the Lost Boys. And look where he is now. Just had his eighteenth birthday and not a scratch on him. We’ve done plenty to emotionally scar him for life, but he’s okay. He’ll _be_ okay. There’s nothing anyone can throw at our family that we won’t overcome.”

“You may have just jinxed that,” she grumbled.

“And if I did, we’ll get through it. Just like we always do.”

Regina rolled her eyes. “ _Charming_.”

“If I’m my dad, that makes you Snow White. So, who’s really being insulted here,” Emma rhetorically asked and beamed when Regina glared daggers at her. “Regina… We did it. We fought like hell to keep, protect, and save our kid and now he’s going off to college. And we did it all while fighting villains and overcoming our dark sides _and_ struggling to get along with each other, even with Henry as a buffer.”

When Regina took the time to think about it, to remember all the things they’d done to each other and for each other over the years, and realized how far they’d come individually, as co-parents and as an entire family—full of dysfunction, but definitely a family—she smiled. A moment later, she almost reverently agreed with Emma. “We did it.” She looked at Emma again after a brief moment, a smile still on her face, and just stared into green eyes for a while.

Emma looked at her as well. Their eyes remained locked in an impenetrable gaze before the blonde’s next move caused Regina’s eyes to flutter shut and her head to loll against the back of the chair.

Emma slid her thumbs further up Regina’s arms and dipped them beneath the sleeves of Regina’s borrowed sweatshirt. It sent goosebumps from the former queen’s wrists to her chest and calmed her as much as it seemed to excite her nerves.

Regina relaxed her entire body and only opened her eyes to see how Emma felt about the reaction the blonde had on her. Thankfully for both of them, Emma just continued to stare at her with kind eyes that searched her face and shoulders for any sign of tension. “You must be using magic on me,” she groggily said as the pull to sleep increased with each breath she took.

“No magic,” Emma informed her. “I’m sure you’d know without a doubt if I was. You’d feel it.”

Emma was right, of course. Magic would have easily been detectible, especially the blonde’s. The second the other woman sent a shockwave of her potent magic through Regina’s veins, it would have been delightfully obvious. Unless Emma was using it to hurt her. Then it would have been painfully obvious. But Emma hadn’t hurt her physically or otherwise in years and either way, the magic would have been quickly detected.

But in addition to that, Regina also couldn’t let Emma think the woman was capable of relaxing her to the point of sleep. There was falling asleep after an exhausting night of babysitting two little ones and then there was consciously making the decision to drift off when it only took a few seconds to slide over Emma, stand up and head back inside.

“It’s magic,” she insisted. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be falling asleep.”

Emma quietly chuckled, the lower volume of her voice a dead giveaway that she was starting to tire as well. “Right, because there’s no way your emotions or the wine or the way I’m touching you have anything to do with it.”

“Exactly,” Regina said with a lift of her eyebrows even as her eyes closed yet again.

The next time she opened them, birds chirped instead of crickets and the sun replaced the moon in the sky. Although she didn’t see the sun. She mostly just saw blonde hair. Emma had rolled on top of her at some point overnight. The blonde’s hips cradled her thigh and their breasts were pressed together. Emma’s head rested in the crook of her neck, a cheek pressed against her sternum just beneath her collarbone.

She felt a tingle in her arm and tried to move it, which was when she realized it was wrapped around Emma’s waist. Her fingers snagged on a belt loop of the other woman’s jeans as she attempted to lift her arm and the movement caused Emma to stir. When bleary, green eyes found hers, Regina drowsily said, “You have got to stop falling asleep in my space.”

Emma chuckled, her voice a little rough from disuse, as she lifted a hand that had previously been tucked against her side near her hip. The younger woman rubbed one of her eyes and dropped her hand back onto the cushioned back of their shared lounge chair. “If you were really upset about it, you wouldn’t cuddle me like you did.”

Of course the blonde, who wasn’t at all a morning person until she had her caffeine fix, made some smug little remark first thing in the morning.

“I don’t cuddle,” she replied, her own voice just as raspy from sleep.

“Oh yeah? Tell that to my lower back,” Emma said with that stupid, beautiful lopsided smile of hers. “Because I didn’t fall asleep until I felt you trace patterns across it. And your hand definitely slipped under my sweater to do it.”

Regina was a little mortified by that shocking revelation, but she masked it as best she could. It was only embarrassing if Emma realized how much she actually enjoyed the comfort of the blonde’s presence and touch, their bodies close enough for Regina to hear her breathing and feel her heartbeat. Their friendship had grown to something Regina couldn’t have ever imagined. They were close enough to openly talk and tease about sex, close enough to fall asleep together, close enough to hug when they parted for the night or day, close enough to text and call each other about more than just Henry. They were close, but Regina had no idea whether or not Emma could, would, or did feel the same way about her as she felt about Emma.

What she felt for the other woman was why she’d allowed Emma to take over a guest room much like Zelena had, but Emma wasn’t without options like her sister. Emma had a home and had parents that could have accommodated her when she refused to stay in the house she’d acquired as the Dark One. Zelena only had her. Emma had other people she could have gone to first, but she’d come to her and argued that it made more sense to live with Henry. And since Henry lived with her—and because Regina liked having Emma close—a guest room offer was extended.

Emma said it was temporary, but how temporary was four years? Henry was thirteen when Emma suggested the arrangement to live under one roof, which the other woman had suggested only two months after Robin’s death. Even if he didn’t move away for college, even if he’d decided to stay in Storybrooke, he was still going to move out of the house to be his own man with his own space like any regular adult that could afford to do that. But until then, until he graduated high school, Emma had planned to stay with them and both women—and their son—knew that point in time was years away from that point in time. So, again, how temporary was their arrangement?

But even knowing that temporary was a lie, that Emma would be sticking around for a while, Regina welcomed Emma into her home. Regina put up a lame fight about Emma moving several of her things into the guest room over time and the groceries that only Emma would buy that filled the refrigerator every week. All because Regina felt things for Emma that she had denied for some time, time that—if she was honest with herself—preceded her involvement with Robin Hood.

“You’re staring.” Emma’s words snapped Regina out of her trance, which was when she realized her eyes had been focused on Emma’s freckled face for a little too long. She was sure there was a certain fondness in her gaze as well, something Emma probably saw and recognized.

“Sorry. I was just thinking,” she tried to cover for herself.

“No need to be sorry,” Emma said with a bright smile, a _sunny_ smile not unlike the early autumn day that had only just begun. Emma grabbed her cell phone out of her back pocket and turned on the display for just a moment before she said, “I think it’s about time I start a fresh pot of coffee.”

Emma carefully extracted herself from Regina’s semi-lazy embrace, still smiling with her eyes set on Regina, and collected the blankets.

“Those have been outside all night,” Regina unnecessarily reminded the other woman. “Leave them in the laundry room. They should be washed before anyone uses them again.”

“Already on it,” Emma said. “And you really should have gotten yourself a sweatshirt during the college visit. That one looks good on you.”

Regina smiled at the compliment, one of many Emma gave her throughout the last four years as though that would help her to keep the guest room the woman had made her own, before she rhetorically asked, “Why would I when I have yours at my disposal?”

“Ha ha,” Emma sardonically laughed in response as she headed toward the back door, blankets bundled up in her arms. “You’re getting your own when we drop him off next week. I actually happen to like that one.”

A week later, when they dropped Henry off at his dorm, Emma was the one buying herself a new sweatshirt at the campus supply store while Regina purposely wore the one she’d commandeered from the blonde that night under the stars.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After finishing the fic I'd started for the most recent SQW, I decided to get back to this one next because I knew I only had one chapter left to complete it, knew I'd had at least some of this chapter written already and then there's the fact that this SQW happened first and yet I finished it after the one from this year? Definitely needed to get this final chapter out. But, if you follow me on Twitter you already know, when I came back to to it, I found out I had more than just a little bit of this chapter finished and sadly could have updated and finished this a lot sooner. Oops.
> 
> Anyway, I spent the last two days editing and polishing this off. Hopefully the year and a half between starting this, last writing for it and the work I did on it this weekend still make for a fitting ending. :)

Although the room was rightfully chilly that late winter morning, it wasn’t what woke her. Regina felt a dip in the bed, a slight pressure on either side of her legs, and a shadow fell over her face before she heard the familiar voice of her niece.

“Aunt Gina!”

“She's right there, darling,” Zelena informed Robyn, much quieter than her niece had spoken. “No need to yell.”

Regina finally opened her eyes and had to blink a few times before she was able to see the two of them clearly. Zelena held Robyn on her hip where the stood beside her bed. “Good morning,” she groggily said. “What are you two doing in here?”

“Can I say it now?” Robyn directed the question at Zelena and spoke in a loud whisper, like it was a secret Robyn was supposed to hide and hadn’t quite understood the concept of a true whisper.

“Yes,” Zelena answered with a small laugh.

Robyn took a deep breath, the inhale loud with her childish dramatics, before she exclaimed, “Happy Birthday!”

Regina smiled and started to pull herself into a sitting position when she realized what had caused the small weight on the bed beside her legs. There was a tray of food in front of her. Waffles with bacon, a side of toast with the option of butter or jam—or both—and a cup of coffee. “Impressive. Is this all for me?”

“Yeah,” Robyn happily told her.

“There’s also a surprise for you downstairs,” Zelena said. “Robyn and I aren’t staying much longer, though. We’ll probably have something to eat, give you our gifts and then leave around lunch.”

Regina frowned. “Why aren’t you staying?”

“I thought you’d enjoy the day with what’s waiting for you downstairs. I wouldn’t want the two of us to get in the way.”

She cocked her head to the side and continued to quizzically stare at Zelena.

Zelena smirked. “You’ll understand when you see the surprise. One that I’m not going to ruin.” Zelena turned and headed for the door before she said, “Enjoy, Sis” over her unoccupied shoulder.

“Enjoy,” Robyn repeated as she waved goodbye and smiled at her.

“Thank you,” she said to them as they left her to her breakfast.

She carefully sat up and rested on her repositioned pillow against the headboard shortly after their departure. She sipped at the glass of apple juice she suspected Robyn had insisted on when the redheaded Mills’ put everything together, but almost instantly the silence in the empty room made her uncomfortable. She bit off a large piece of toast before she set the tray on the vacant side of the bed and went about her morning routine.

She threw on a pair of silk sleep shorts and a long sleeve shirt, brushed her hair and teeth and then went downstairs with her breakfast. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, however, she startled when she heard a harsh pop from the living room and almost dropped the tray in her initial shock and then rush to produce a fireball. When she heard a very familiar grumble, she sighed with relief and gripped the tray more firmly before one end tipped too far downward. She’d already ruined the birthday present enough by not enjoying it in bed as it’d been intended. She didn’t want to completely waste it on the hardwood floor.

She set the tray on the dining room table on her way into the other room and abruptly stopped almost as soon as she crossed the threshold.

Emma stood on a chair near the back door with a string of black and purple balloons hung along the far wall just above the height of the doorframe. One of the balloons lay shriveled against the frame while Emma attempted to blow up another one.

“What are you doing?”

Emma stopped blowing and whipped around to look at Regina. Too stunned to hold the half blown up balloon closed, Emma loosened her grip and the party decoration lost air quickly with a sad squeak.

“Regina! Uh. You're supposed to be having breakfast in bed.”

“And you're _not_ supposed to be standing on ladders or chairs without supervision. What's with the balloons?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise.”

“I would have incinerated you if I hadn't heard your voice. It was definitely a surprise.”

“But it's not finished yet.”

“Emma, what's going on?”

“It's your birthday.”

“And?”

“And I...wanted to do nice things for you.”

“You've lived here for how many of my birthdays?”

“Uh, four not including this one.”

“When have I ever expressed a desire for balloons?”

“Never.”

“So, why are you putting them up this year?”

“You don't like them.” Emma's face immediately fell and Regina regretted the way she'd approached the subject just as quickly.

“I didn't say that.”

“You didn't have to." Emma climbed off the chair and dropped the neglected balloon onto the seat. "Sorry. I'll take them down. Just give me a few minutes.”

“No. Don't do that. I'm sorry. I appreciate it. I do. I just...I've never once had balloons on my birthday.”

“Oh. Well, I guess that makes two of us,” Emma said with a nervous smile.

“Is that...is that why you thought to do it for me?”

“Kinda. I didn't think I was doing enough any of your other birthdays since moving in and I wanted to make this one more special. Decorating is just part of the plan to do that.”

“Only part of it?”

Emma's nervous smile turned bashful. “Um, yeah, there's another surprise coming—” Emma checked her phone, "any minute now. And then there's this.”

Regina's gaze followed Emma's hand as the blonde reached into her back pocket and pulled out a group of index cards.

“It's kind of lame. Something Henry did for you on Mother's Day when he was younger. I stole the idea from him, but hopefully it's still a good gift.”

She accepted the cards that she noticed were bound by three staples down one side. She smiled when she started to flip through them. “A coupon book.”

“Yeah, it's dumb.”

“It's not. It's thoughtful. And cute.”

“Cute? Cute as in 'you're such a child' or ' _you're_ cute and I like it?'”

Regina's smile widened. “The second one, but you are a child sometimes.”

“I thought I just ate like one.”

“You stomped your foot when I wouldn't let you lick the spoon after making cookies just last week.”

“Everyone knows the dough is the best part, Regina.”

“It's also the part that makes you stick your head in a toilet and cry because 'throwing up hurts' and you don't like it.”

“Okay, that was embarrassing for me. Not one of my finer moments, but you were amazing. Thanks again for holding back my hair. That had to be gross, even after doing it for Henry for years.”

“It's always gross, even when I did it for Henry.”

“Right. Well, anyway, the coupon book is my way of thanking you for moments like that and because I don't think you get pampered as much as you pamper others. You deserve more than just one day out of the year for someone to show their appreciation.”

Regina hummed as another smile spread across her face. “Thank you.” She started to flip through the booklet again and hesitated when she saw an interesting doodle of two stick figures with yellow and brown hair. “One free massage? From you?”

“Do you doubt my skills?”

“If this drawing is anything to go by—”

“It’s not. I might not be a masseuse, but I can definitely work out kinks.”

Regina arched a brow and grinned. “Can you, now?”

Her expression didn’t get a reaction, but her voice certainly did. Emma’s eyebrows shot up and the blonde slowly parted her lips as her gaze sept over Regina from head to toe and settled on her mouth on their way back up. Just when it looked like Emma was about to say something, if the way her lips soundlessly flapped a little like a fish out of water was anything to by, the front door suddenly jerked open.

Emma snapped out of her trance when the door shut a few seconds later and her attention went from Regina to a space just past the brunette. “Henry?”

Regina furrowed her brow and watched Emma as the younger woman crossed the room. She flicked her tongue over her bottom lip when Emma touched her bicep on her way toward the foyer. She followed the blonde with her eyes before she walked out after her a few seconds later.

“Hey, Ma. Is Mom up yet?” Regina heard his voice only a few footsteps before she saw their son with a backpack and large duffle bag slung over his shoulders where he stood on the first-floor landing. His eyes found hers in record time. “Oh. Mom. Happy Birthday!”

He smiled brightly at her and her heart swelled. “Henry,” she reverently exhaled and then quickly closed the distance between them to wrap him in a tight hug.

“Surprise,” she heard Emma say while she squeezed Henry at least half a minute before letting him go.

“You did this?”

“I just paid for the bus ticket. I would have picked him up myself, but I figured you’d worry if I wasn’t here when you woke up. I didn’t really have an excuse to not be here. Plus, I was _trying_ to decorate for you.”

“Oh, god. You really went with the balloons?” Henry tossed the duffle bag aside to rest against the bottom of the stairs. “I told you she wouldn’t care about that.”

“I appreciate the gesture,” Regina clarified. “It wasn’t necessary, but I like the thought that went into it.”

When she locked eyes with Emma, she winked at the blonde who then looked flattered and a little weak in the knees. Regina smirked.

“Uh,” Emma cleared her throat and redirected her attention to the duffle bag. “Kid, did you really need to bring your laundry home for your mom’s birthday?”

“Relax. I’m not going to make her do it. I know how to wash my own clothes. I just wanted to use the machines here. Better than freezing cold and grimy laundromats.”

“So spoiled.”

Henry beamed. “And I love it.”

Emma chuckled and ruffled his hair to the result of a grumbled protest as he brushed it back into place within seconds. “That’s what happens when you’re born _and_ adopted into royalty.”

“Yeah, well, this prince twice over needs a shower. I’m gonna get cleaned up and then maybe we can do a family movie day?”

“Movie _day_? Are you planning on making me a couch potato?”

“Only until we have the big dinner tonight,” Henry replied.

“And you can always use a coupon or two in the meantime, too,” Emma suggested.

Regina looked down at the booklet still in her hand, still open to the free massage, and then grinned sinfully at the blonde.

“Oh, I have every intention of doing that, _Miss Swan_.”

Both women missed the way Henry’s nose crinkled with a grimace, but heard him when he asked, “Can you at least wait until I leave the room before flirting?”

Emma laughed loudly and replied when Henry started jogging up the stairs. “Half the fun of flirting with her is having at least one witness.”

Henry shuddered before he disappeared around the corner headed toward his room and Emma laughed again, but the laughter stopped as soon as she turned to see Regina who stared at the younger woman with an arched brow and cocked hip.

“We’re definitely picking this up later,” Regina promised with a hint of purr.

Which led to the third, and not at all accidental, time they slept together.

After a day of relaxation and a pleasant family dinner with everyone, even the Charmings, Emma walked out of the master bathroom in only a tank top and red lace panties. Regina’s first thought was that they’d come full circle.

“Nice outfit,” she teasingly said with a grin. She raked her eyes over the other woman from her blonde hair to the red strap of her bra that poked out from the white strap of the tank top. Her gaze lowered to admire the swell of Emma’s contained but still easily appreciated breasts and further down to stare at the nearly transparent panties. Regina’s attention remained there a moment longer than was decent before she took in the sight of long, smooth legs.

Emma smirked, the expression a little cocky, when Regina’s eyes locked onto the younger woman’s. “The first time you saw me in this, you couldn’t stop smiling.”

“It wasn’t a nice smile and it had nothing to do with what you were wearing,” Regina argued as Emma crawled next to her in bed. “It was a polite, ‘get the hell out of my town’ smile.”

“Yeah, okay,” Emma sarcastically responded. “Do you want a massage tonight or not? Because if you want to deny that you find me attractive, I can stop all this birthday spa treatment anytime.”

“Mm, you want me to tell you you’re pretty,” Regina mockingly asked. “Is that another one of your turn-ons?”

Emma rolled her eyes as she leaned over Regina to open the nightstand drawer. The blonde pulled out a small bottle of scented oil. “Think I can heat this up without making the top pop off?”

“I don’t know. Are you quick to climax? That’s usually an indicator.” She shifted in bed as she looked at Emma with a grin and an arched eyebrow.

“Wow, you and the sex jokes. You have a dirty mind.”

“Says the woman that constantly brags about her oral skills.”

Emma laughed. “Well, I’m not good at much else, so flaunt the few talents you have. Right?”

The bottle started to glow in Emma’s hand and, thankfully, the other woman stopped just before the oil started to bubble inside.

“I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone with even half your magical skills ever doubt themselves as much as you do,” Regina said as she readjusted her position. The sheets slid down her body and revealed her black balconette bra. The sheets bunched up at the top of her torso. She watched Emma’s eyes fall to her chest as the blonde opened the bottle. Regina fought the urge to smirk at the other woman’s reaction.

Emma shrugged and motioned for Regina to turn over.

Regina slid down the bed a little before she complied with Emma’s instruction and rolled onto her stomach. She swept her hair off her back and pressed her right cheek against her pillow, her face turned away from Emma. A moment later, Emma pulled the sheets down until her entire back was exposed and the sheets bunched up at her hips.

“Hold this for a second?” Emma tapped the bottom of the oil bottle against her hand.

Regina opened her hand and felt Emma give her the bottle, which was warm to the touch. Once it was firmly in her grasp, Emma’s hands moved up her spine and settled on the band of her bra.

“Is this okay or do you want me to work around it,” Emma asked as she kept her hands ready to unclasp the bra, but didn’t remove it.

“Take it off, Emma,” she instructed.

Emma took action and unhooked the bra. It fell away from Regina’s skin with minimal effort and allowed access to more of the older woman. Neither woman pushed it away and instead left it trapped between Regina’s body and the bed. The straps hung off Regina’s biceps, but it was uncomfortable to feel them brush against her any time she moved. Even the rise and all of her chest caused the straps to slide up and down her arms. It itched and made her feel restrained, so she slipped out of the bra completely after Emma took the oil back.

When Regina was comfortable and settled, Emma started to rub the oil onto Regina’s back. The younger woman trailed it over Regina’s shoulders and pushed upward to rub some onto Regina’s neck.

Regina closed her eyes and slowly exhaled as she released tension she’d been carrying for a while and hadn’t calmed herself enough to let go of until that moment. Her breathing slowed as she fell into a meditative state.

Emma’s oil covered hands drifted lower and applied a little pressure just as the oil’s vanilla scent filled the room. The blonde covered Regina’s back with the oil in a matter of minutes where she knelt on the bed beside Regina’s prone form. Once Regina’s back was oiled up, Emma rubbed it over Regina’s arms. The younger woman applied it from her shoulders down to her wrists before Emma pulled her hands away.

The lack of body heat from Emma’s hands created a small breeze to roll across the brunette’s back. Against the warm oil, the breeze was enough to draw a quiet moan out of her.

“I take it the oil feels good?”

“Very good,” Regina purred.

A few moments passed in silence and Emma’s hands had yet to return to Regina. Out of curiosity, Regina turned her head to look at the blonde just as the woman said, “You’re right. That feels amazing.”

Regina watched Emma pull her right hand away from her left arm as she finished speaking, apparently testing the oil for herself. A second later, Regina noticed she was almost at eye level with red lace. Another second after that, Emma seemed to notice as well.

“Have you ever been with a woman,” Emma asked as shifted on the bed.

Regina followed the movement for only a second before she looked up and met Emma’s eyes. “Maleficent,” she answered as they held each other’s gaze.

“I knew it,” Emma replied with a proud grin. “The way you looked at her in that pantsuit and hat. Then there’s the way you talked about her when you sent me under the library to kill her years before that. There’s so much history between you two, it’s obvious.”

“Yes, well, it was fun while it lasted. There was a bit of an emotional attachment for me in the beginning. I suppose a part of it remained even when I was the Evil Queen, but I was still willing to sacrifice her happiness for my own. I also didn’t care enough at that point to know when she’d been pregnant. I didn’t ask. I didn’t find out until she asked for your help to find Lily.”

“Well, there are different relationships for different points in our lives. What you had with her was either something you needed then or was all just part of your life experiences that led you here, made you who you are now. Or at least helped with that.”

“And now? What’s this? Our relationship. What purpose does it serve?”

Emma smiled. “I don’t know yet.”

Regina relaxed again, but didn’t turn her head away. She closed her eyes and, in seconds, felt Emma’s hands on her again. Her breath came out in short bursts at first, her heartbeat a little quicker than usual, but it slowed after a few minutes. She fell back into that same meditative state and thought she might actually fall asleep until Emma’s hand pressed into her lower back. Another moan escaped her as she rolled her hips back and pushed out her ass. Her cheeks flared up with embarrassment.

Neither one of them said anything about it, but Emma slid her hands up to Regina’s shoulder blades and focused on her upper body for a few minutes. Once the embarrassment subsided, Regina relaxed again and was able to fill the silence with conversation.

“Thank you,” Regina said. “For today. You really didn’t have to go through all the trouble you did.”

“Yeah, I did. I’ve been living here rent free for years and you’ve never even asked me to so much as clean out the gutters.”

“Because you usually do them without being asked, even though we both have magic and could easily use it to achieve the same results as you getting on a ladder and scraping out the leaves yourself. Except magic is also quicker.”

“And less dangerous,” Emma agreed with a smile.

“You’d have probably been in the hospital with a lot of broken bones if it weren’t for magic,” she informed her.

“I’d probably be dead if it wasn’t for _you_ after that one bad attempt,” Emma corrected her and slid her hands down to the center of Regna’s back. “Did I ever thank you for catching my fall when I’d been too stupid to use my own magic to do it myself?”

“Repeatedly,” Regina groaned, partly due to the massage and partly because of her frustration with the events of that day. “You even tried to make me dinner that night and nearly burned down my kitchen. But not because you can’t cook. Because that would have been too easy an explanation.”

The hands on her back slowed before Emma said, “I told you I checked my phone and didn’t realize—”

“What was happening until it was too late,” Regina finished for her with a hint of agitation, as though talking about it was the same as reliving it. “So you told me. Multiple times.”

“Two years later and you still don’t believe me?”

“You’d only picked up your phone when I turned around and the burning dish towel right next to you was blindingly obvious. Except you didn’t notice until I yelled and put it out.”

“You are so hung up on this,” Emma laughed a little as she spoke and moved her hands over Regina’s sides.

“Because I think _you_ were looking at _me_ and wouldn’t admit to it. You still won’t admit it.”

“I was _not_ —”

“Don’t forget, Emma. You’re a terrible liar,” she said with a smirk.

“If you knew I was looking, why didn’t you say anything?”

“I just did.”

“Why didn’t you say anything then?”

“I was too busy yelling at you for the fire. And then, after that, dinner was burnt, too.”

“No, if you knew I was looking, you would have used it against me when you were yelling at me,” Emma replied as her hands ran up Regina’s side and grazed Regina’s breasts.

Regina gasped and clamped her mouth shut as soon as she heard the sound. She slowly, subtly, closed her fist around the fitted sheet beneath her to help her contain any other detectable reactions.

“Maybe I didn’t think it was worth mentioning,” she gritted out.

Emma lightheartedly scoffed. “Now _you’re_ lying. Friends or just friendly, co-parents, or even enemies. It doesn’t matter what we are to each other. You’d still tease me about checking out your ass.”

Regina grinned. “I never said anything about my ass.”

Emma halted her movements before she asked again, “Why didn’t you say anything? The truth this time.”

Regina sighed. “It didn’t seem like an appropriate time to tease you about it.”

“Why?”

“I- When I realized what had distracted you, I also realized I liked you looking at me. Although, I was never sure what about me had distracted you until now.”

Emma laughed through her confusion and asked, “What did you think had my attention?”

“I always knew it was a possibility, but you could have just been watching me while I washed the dishes. As strange a thing as that may seem, it was also a possibility. And I never saw your eyes looking anywhere below my waist when I turned around.”

“In all honesty,” Emma said as the blonde’s hands moved down her sides toward her hips, “I have watched you do the dishes before.” Emma’s hands moved up again and grazed the sides of Regina’s breasts again before the younger woman’s hands slid over and up her back. “I’ve watched you clean the counters. I’ve watched you fold clothes while reading something or Skyping with Henry. I’ve been looking at you for years, Regina.”

When Emma’s fingers skimmed across her lower back and her thumbs dipped beneath the bedsheets bunched just above her backside, Regina gasped and lifted her hips off the bed again.

Emma stilled her hands. “Regina?”

She slipped a hand between her chest and the bed and held her bra to her chest as she rolled onto her back. Emma’s hands fell away from her body as she moved and their eyes locked in seconds.

“You like me,” Regina said with a serious, slightly wide-eyed expression. A second later, her lips curled into a smirk. “You like me a lot.”

Emma looked away for a moment as her hands went limp against her thighs and she lowered herself onto her heels. “I tried not to be obvious about it for a while, but I kind of figured not moving out when Henry left for school was a big indicator.”

Regina’s expression sobered again. “Were you waiting for me to figure it out before you admitted it?”

“Kind of,” Emma shrugged.

“Why wait? You’ve accused me of looking at you that way before, so why not say something then?”

“I didn’t want to ruin this, whatever it is we have.”

Regina exhaled through her nose, slowly. She pulled her bra away and dropped it on the floor beside the bed before her chest rose with her next inhale. She noticed—although anyone would have—Emma’s eyes fall to her exposed breasts.

“Regina.” Her name fell from Emma’s mouth as nothing but a breath. Emma started at her, stunned. There was a hint of awe in green eyes, but Emma was mostly shocked by the exposure.

“Consider this my coupon book for you,” Regina said as she took one of Emma’s hands and brought it to her chest. She held Emma’s right hand against her left breast and added, “It allows you to do a number of things to me. Right now.”

“I- I don’t want this to be about repaying a gesture or anything,” Emma responded as she tried to take her hand back.

Regina tightened her grip.

“This isn’t about earning my way into your bed, is it?” Emma asked.

“No,” Regina answered. “This about the feelings between us being mutual.”

“Oh,” Emma blinked and looked own at their joins hands over Regina’s breast.

Regina then moved their hands up to rest it over her heart for Emma to feel, for her to understand.

Emma waited two heart beats before she locked eyes with Regina. And then it seemed to click. “Oh,” Emma responded with a smile. “So, if I did this?”

Emma let her actions speak for her as the fingertips of her free hand circled around her belly button with the lightest of touches.

Regina bent her knees and arched into Emma’s touch as she gripped the sheets on either side of herself. “You’re a torturous tease, but I don’t mind the touch,” Regna replied.

“And if I did this?” Emma threw a leg over Regina and straddled her waist.

Regina let go of the fitted sheet and rested both hands on the tops of the blonde’s thighs. “Finally, we’re getting somewhere.” Emma rolled her eyes, but Regina skimmed her hands further up the other woman’s thighs and caused the blonde to lick her lips as her chest heaved. Regina smirked.

As soon as Emma saw the smirk, the younger woman leaned in and brushed her bottom lip against Regina’s top lip. Emma flashed a brief, victorious smile when the smirk was wiped right of Regina’s face. Then, the two of them maintained contact while Emma pulled away but continued to hover above the brunette.

“The hand over your heart gesture,” Emma said. “What did that mean exactly?”

Regina rolled her eyes. “You know what it means. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be on top of me right now.”

“Maybe. Or maybe I just thought you were giving me more encouragement to feel you up.”

“What do you want? You want me to say it?” Regina was flustered, but tried to bury any emotion that wasn’t irritation. If she didn’t bury it, she’d be far too vulnerable. Even if she trusted Emma implicitly, she hated vulnerability.

“Yeah, I do,” Emma answered.

Regina sighed. “What’s unclear about my heart? More specifically _your hand_ on my heart?”

“Just…say it? I want- I need to hear it.”

The words were a plea and the sad but hopeful look in her eyes expressed just how strong the need was for Emma. She understood that need, remembered when she craved the words herself when she hadn’t heard them—or felt their meaning in her heart or soul—in a while. Then it became easy for her to be vulnerable with Emma, because Emma was already vulnerable with her.

“I love you,” she choked out the words as her eyes watered. “I’m in love with you, Emma.”

Emma lit up almost immediately and her green eyes shined with warmth and tears. In an instant, Emma crashed their lips together in a slow, searing kiss.

Regina melted into the bed and parted her lips to deepen the kiss without any insistence from the blonde. Not long after she gave Emma access, Regina hummed as she felt the other woman’s tongue in her mouth.

Emma slid her hands up the bed toward the headboard and stopped them on either side of Regina’s head, slipped them under the pillow the brunette’s head rested on. The position of her hands and the weight she put on them and her forearms caused her to slide her concealed sex against Regina’s bare lower abdomen. The friction of panties on heated flesh made both women moan. When they pulled away from the kiss, Emma bit her bottom lip as she smiled. The blonde released her lip a moment later and said, “I love you, too. I’m in love with you and I have been for a while.”

Regina let out a wet chuckle. “Probably not as long as I have. I just…didn’t admit it to myself. Well, no. That’s not true. I felt it and I fought it, especially when you were with Hook. And then Robin… After what Tink had told me, it felt easier at first. But it wasn’t really.”

Emma frowned. “Why not?”

Regina laughed again and shook her head. “Because nothing has ever been easy with you and ever since you showed up here, everything I’ve done has involved you somehow.”

“But you still love me anyway,” Emma replied with a bright smile.

“Not if you push your luck,” Regina said with a hint of a smile.

“Mm, I think I probably could. I think you probably loved me in some way before you fell for me.”

“Oh, really?” Regina arched an eyebrow.

“Mhmm.”

“And how are you so sure of that?”

Emma licked her lips again while Regina ran a hand through long, blonde hair where it cascaded over the woman’s shoulders.

“Because the same thing happened for me. After Henry and I came back from New York, I started falling for you. I already cared about you by then, but I really started to understand there was something more to my feelings. But then my abandonment issues got in the way and I didn’t act on them.”

Regina’s chin wobbled. With a watery smile and a tear trolling over her temple toward her hairline, she said, “When I gave you those memories…that’s when- When you two left, you took my heart with you. And not just because you had Henry.”

“You- You were in love with me then?”

She didn’t reply until Emma wiped away the tear with a thumb. “Yes. And when you came back with Hook, that’s when I started to fight it and allowed myself to let Robin in.”

“Considering how things turned out with Hook, I wish you would’ve said something sooner.”

“It probably would have saved a lot of time and trouble,” she agreed. “But we’re here now, and half-naked. One of us is a little more stripped than the other, though.”

She looked own at her bare chest to make her point.

Emma followed her eyes and the younger woman’s lips curled into a small smile. “Then let’s not waste any more time, shall we?”

Emma sat up as she continued to straddle Regina and crossed her arms over her torso before she grabbed the hem of her tank top. The blonde peeled it off and revealed her red bra. Emma tossed the top over the side of the bed and then reached behind herself to remove her bra. “You should enjoy this brief moment while it lasts,” Emma said as she fiddled with the clasp. “My underwear hardly ever matches.”

“Maybe if you invest in some lingerie,” Regina replied as she looked from green eyes to the red bra that slipped down when the clasp was released. “Stick with me and you will.”

“Don’t you already know, Regina?” Emma pulled the straps off her shoulders and discarded the bra in seconds. Regina stared up at pink nipples that stiffened when Emma swept her fingers over one of her breasts. “I’m gonna stick by you. No matter what.”

Regina’s lifted until she locked eyes with Emma as the woman beamed at her. Regina remembered the last time Emma had said those words to her, how she’d protected Emma as best she could from Rumple’s plans while Emma had tried to protect her from getting involved and getting in over her head with the Queens of Darkness. Those words were a promise then, one Regina knew Emma would have stopped at nothing to keep, just as they were a promise in that moment.

“I know you will,” Regina said.

Emma leaned in again and their breasts brushed, skin on skin, before they kissed just as slowly and passionately as they had after their initial confessions. Emma pulled away from her mouth a minute later and trailed kissed along Regina’s jaw from ear to ear.

Regina tipped her head back and to the side when Emma started to kiss below her ear and gently raked her nails up the other woman’s thighs even before Emma flicked her tongue over the sensitive spot. Once the blonde did that, Regina arched up into the woman and dug her nails in close to the apex of Emma’s legs.

Emma hummed against her skin and sucked at the patch of skin that made Regina writhe beneath her. As she kissed lower and lower down Regina’s neck, the quicker Regina’s breathing became.

Regina slid her hands up red lace and curled her fingers inside the waistband of Emma’s panties just as Emma found her pulse point. Regina moaned and dragged the panties down the other woman’s hips.

Emma licked and sucked at Regina’s pulse point, sure to leave a hickey, as she rolled her hips and helped Regina slide her panties down to her knees. She lifted her knees off the bed one at a time while she continued her loving assault on Regina’s neck and Regina tugged the panties to Emma’s shins.

She released Emma’s panties where they stretched, and were most likely to rip, across her own hips. As she pulled her hands away and brought one of them up into blonde hair, Emma relinquished Regina’s neck and sat up.

Emma tried to keep herself balanced as she stood up on the bed, her feet on either side of Regina’s hips, and bent at the waist to finish the removal of her underwear.

Regina had other plans as she sat up and grabbed the panties to finish the job herself. She slid the material down semi-toned legs until the panties pooled at Emma’s feet.

Emma lifted a foot and stepped out of one leg of her panties before she sank back onto her knees and reached over to pull the panties off her other foot by herself. When she was free of them, she flung them aside somewhere and continued to kneel while Regina stared at newly revealed skin.

Regina took a moment to admire Emma’s naked body before her eyes roamed upward and locked on Emma’s again.

Emma shuffled backward, down Regina’s body, and her movement tugged down the bedsheets just enough to expose the waistband of shorts Regina still wore.

“Tell me again how one of us is more stripped than the other,” Emma teased with a smile.

Regina smirked and tucked her thumbs into the sides of her shorts and panties. She arched her back and slipped them both down to expose only a teasing amount of skin. She paused there.

Emma shook her head with a smile and, impatient, curled her fingers inside the waistband beside Regina’s. The younger woman hesitated again and asked, “Is this okay?”

Regina’s smirk melted into a warm, loving smile. “Yes, Emma. It’s okay.”

Emma’s smile brightened before the blonde pulled the shorts and panties down the rest of the way.

Regina let go when the shorts reached her knees and settled back onto the bed to watch Emma remove the last two barriers between them. “Come here,” Regina instructed once they were discarded, and Emma complied as the younger woman fell forward and met Regina’s lips with her own for yet another kiss.

 Their lips and tongues connected with each other less patiently than their first few kisses. Regina’s hands wandered south and she grazed a knuckle over Emma’s clit, which caused the blonde to whimper and twitch, and slid a finger through the other woman’s slick folds. When her knuckle teasingly, ever so lightly, pressed against Emma’s opening, Emma’s previous whimper became a more vocal moan.

Emma spread her legs wide and it bought her sex closer to Regina’s pelvic bone, which also forced Regina’s knuckle just the slightest bit inside the blonde. Emma tensed for a brief second and broke their kiss to pull away only far enough for her to look into Regina’s eyes. “This is supposed to be about you,” Emma told her.

“If that’s the case then you can go first,” Regina replied with smirk before she turned her hand over and dipped a finger inside Emma.

Emma bit her lip and tried to remain still in what Regina assumed was supposed to be resistance to get her point across, but Regina was persistent and Emma was turned on.

Regina slid her finger almost, but not quite, completely out of Emma before she plunged back inside. She grinned as Emma’s mouth fell wide open. “Do you know what I want right now, Em-ma?”

“No, I don’t,” Emma breathlessly answered.

“I want to watch you cum for me. Again,” she said with a thrust of her finger. “And _again_.” Another thrust. “And _again_.” A third thrust and Emma whimpered and bucked against her.

“It’s your day,” Emma barely managed to reply. “Whatever you want.”

Regina chuckled and said, “Good, because I want you.” She started a steady pace, but added a second finger almost instantly while Emma leaned in again. As soon as she was close enough, Regina peppered the valley between her breast with kisses both chaste and wet. Emma stared to meet Regina’s thrusts and made it hard to keep kissing the other woman, so Regina stuck two fingers in her mouth and wet them.

She smirked around her fingers before she withdrew them, Emma’s eyes on her as she sucked and removed them. It encouraged Regina as she brought her wet fingers to one of Emma’s nipples and rolled it between thumb and forefinger.

Emma moaned and leaned closer as the blonde all but lay sprawled out like a starfish on top of her. Emma started to ride her fingers as she pressed sloppy kisses to Regina’s collarbone, jaw and lips. The puffs of breath against her neck and face while Emma kissed her, as well as slight flutter of Emma’s inner walls against her fingers, spoke to the younger woman’s needs, so Regina sped up her pace and started to curl her fingers.

Emma panted audibly against her skin before the blonde lifted her head and tried to toss her hair over her shoulders as a sheen of sweat started to form on fair skin.

When Emma sat up just a little too far out of reach, Regina directed the fingers she’d used on Emma’s nipples to stimulate Emma’s clit. Immediately, she was rewarded with a loud moan that Regina worried would wake Henry. Emma didn’t hesitate to buck against her again as she rubbed circles over the bundle of nerves as quickly as she pumped in and out of Emma.

“Fuck,” Emma exhaled before she squeezed her eyes shut and clenched a little harder and a little longer around Regina’s fingers.

“If you’re going to be loud, soundproof,” Regina warned.

A small cry escaped Emma before she managed to hurriedly flick her wrist. The spell almost wasn’t complete before Emma orgasmed with a sharper, much louder cry only seconds later.

Emma shuddered and heavily exhaled when her body finally went slack. She leaned forward onto her hands and panted for another moment as she tried to catch her breath. Then she said, “That was embarrassingly fast for me.”

“It usually takes you longer?”

“Unless you go down on me, it usually takes about ten minutes to work me up.”

“Mm, good to know I have a special effect on you,” Regina purred before she smirked up at Emma and finally removed her fingers from the other woman. “I’d like to have that effect on you again, if you don’t mind.”

Emma smiled. “I’m here to fulfill your every need.”

“Excellent,” Regina grinned and grabbed the other woman’s hips before she flipped them.

After Emma’s back hit the bed and Regina nestled her hips between the woman’s legs, the blonde said, “Just don’t tire me out because I plan to return the favor tenfold.”

“You do?”

“I have a few things I’d like to try. I have some theories about what you might enjoy.”

“Theories, hmm?”

“Yeah, good ones. If you want to know what they are, you’ll keep my orgasms to a minimum before I give you at least one.”

“Sorry, Miss Swan. No guarantees,” she replied with a grin.

Emma bit her lip, but released it seconds later when Regina pushed her legs farther apart and kissed her way down the younger woman’s torso.

“Let’s see just how fast I can keep you cuming,” Regina said when she hovered above Emma’s lower abdomen.

She started with teasing, curious flicks and progressed to steady strokes. Emma rewarded her with whimpers, gasps and bucking hips that Regina quickly had to restrain with her hands. She looked up Emma’s body and found blue-green eyes. She smiled and watched Emma, propped up on her elbows, as she wrapped her lips around the other woman’s clit.

Emma threw her head back and moaned loudly while her thighs twitched.

Regina moaned against her in response and Emma let out a strangled sound of pleasure.

“Regina,” the blonde nearly sobbed her name.

Regina groaned then, completely turned on and willing to give Emma everything then. She didn’t hold back anymore and slid two fingers inside the younger woman. She pumped in and out just as steadily as she’d licked Emma earlier and alternated between licking and sucking Emma’s clit. Full swirls, half-circles and up and down motions led to Emma tightening around her fingers and, not long after that, Emma trembled through a second orgasm.

Regina hummed as she slowed to a stop and removed her fingers. She lapped at Emma’s sex before she pulled away and licked her lips, her eyes on the blonde as Emma tried to control her seemingly pounding heart and rapid breathing. She crawled up the woman’s body and rolled onto her side to curl up against her partner.

“That was… You are a very good gift giver,” Emma said between breaths. “And it’s _your_ birthday.”

Regina grinned. “The sounds you make and the way your body reacts to me are some of the best gifts I could ever hope for. You shouldn’t take that lightly either. For a long time, I was very selfish lover. Of course, that only happened after I became the Evil Queen, but—”

“I’m totally okay with you being selfish,” Emma confessed with a blissful smile. “I also loved what just happened. If there are ever any days you want to just touch and not be touched, I can do that. If there are any days you want to be touched without reciprocating for whatever reason, I can do that, too. But then some of those times I might need to finish myself off. Hopefully you won’t deny me that if I need it?”

“I wouldn’t, but I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Although, I’m certainly open to the idea of watching you masturbate.”

Emma’s eyebrows jumped toward her hairline. “Seriously?”

“I’d even love to tell you how to touch yourself on occasion.”

Emma groaned and cupped the back of Regina’s neck before pulling her in for several intense kisses. When they pulled away for air, Emma rhetorically asked, “Have I mentioned I loved you?”

Regina smiled and happily pecked Emma’s lips. “I’ll take that as a yes, you’d be okay with that, too.”

“Definitely.”

“Good. Now, should we move your stuff in here tonight or wait until morning?”

“Whoa. Wait. What? You- You want me to move in _here_? Like, into _your_ room?”

“Our room,” Regina corrected. “We could just as easily wait until we’ve had a few dates like most couples, but I don’t see why we’d waste any more time. Unless…there’s another reason you don’t want to?”

“Hey, no. Regina. I never said I didn’t want to. You just…” Emma sighed and tried again. “Ask me.”

“What?”

“Ask me to move in with you.”

“Why? You already live here. It’s just a matter of moving your things from one room to another.”

Emma propped herself up on her elbow and shook her head. “No. I suggested I come to live here out of convenience for Henry’s sake and you agreed, but never asked me. And now, we’re taking an actual first step into what went on unspoken between us for so long. So, I need you to ask me.”

The raw emotion in Emma’s eyes overwhelmed Regina and she understood almost immediately. Emma still had abandonment issues and needed to know she was wanted, needed to know their living arrangement was more than just convenience.

“Emma, I want you to move in with me. Completely move in. Not because it’s easier or makes more sense than anything else. I want you here. I want to share my home, my room, my bed, my _life_ with you. Is that okay?”

Emma smiled a wobbly smile as her eyes filled with tears. “Yes. Yeah, I want all of that.”

“Okay then.” Emma rolled onto her in an instant, kissed her and wrapped her up in what resembled a bear hug before she got her next sentence out. She laughed at the absurdity and loved it all the same. Her laughter came through in her next words when she offered, “I say we should make a day of moving you in here. It shouldn’t take more than an hour, I’m sure, but no magic like I was going to do if we’d moved you in tonight. We can take advantage of Henry being home this weekend. We’ll make everything official and, as much as it’ll probably pain me, we’ll have your parents over for dinner with all of us. How does that sound?”

“Like something permanent and everything I’ve ever wanted,” Emma said a little breathlessly before she made Regina lose her breath. And her voice. Several shared orgasms later, with every intention of sharing Regina’s bed without, they fell asleep wrapped up in each other for the first of many times to come.


End file.
